Conventional dental cleaning methods have many limitations and disadvantages. Brushing the teeth can only clean the tooth surfaces that a brush can reach. Therefore, brushing cleans only the exposed surfaces of teeth, not the crevices between teeth. Flossing can reach most of these crevices, but it is inconvenient to use, particularly for children. Since plaque formation occurs after meals and its adhesion to teeth is enhanced with time, the plaque is much more easily removed immediately after meals. Because of the inconveniences of flossing, people rarely floss after each meal. As time goes by, the plaque becomes hard to remove. Rinsing teeth with mouthwash is convenient enough to be done immediately after meals. However, rinsing does not clean the crevices between teeth very well. When the jaw is closed, open spaces are typically formed between the upper and lower teeth. These spaces are much larger than the crevices between adjacent teeth. The larger spaces provide a shortcut for the mouthwash to bypass the crevices. Thus, when rinsing, most of the mouthwash or water flows through the larger open spaces between the upper teeth and the lower teeth, and only a very small amount of mouthwash may flow through the crevices. Not only is the amount of mouthwash flowing through the crevices reduced, the pressure applied on the crevices is also diminished due to the bypass of mouthwash through the open spaces, resulting in a lower flow rate in the crevices. Such a low flow rate of a small amount of mouthwash has insufficient wash power to clean the narrow crevices between the teeth. Hence, even if the mouthwash can kill bacteria, rinsing with mouthwash can hardly wash out the attached dead bacteria, plaque and other adhering residues on the tooth surfaces in the crevices. These remaining residues still provide bacterium with a breeding ground. Therefore, rinsing with mouthwash cannot effectively clean the narrow crevices between teeth. These narrow crevices are inhabited by plaque and other bacteria, which cause bad breath, tooth decay and cavities. Currently, there is no efficient and convenient way to clean them.
The oral mucosa is an attractive and feasible site for systematic and localized drug delivery due to its relative permeability, its high concentration of blood vessels, short recovery time after damage, tolerance to allergens, and acceptability to patients. Furthermore, oral transmucosal drug delivery bypasses first pass effects and avoids presystematic elimination in the gastrointestinal tract. Current methods of transmucosal drug delivery requires drug containing gels or films to be injected or implanted under the gum line or in mucosal tissue. Such procedures must be performed by trained dental physician in a clinical setting. These gels or films are designed to facilitate the sustained release of drugs over a limited time frame. Thus patients are required to return to the clinic periodically and have the expired gel or film removed and a new gel or film implanted. These treatments are expensive, uncomfortable and inconvenient for patients.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for teeth crevice cleaning and for delivering an agent orally which reduces or overcomes some or all of the aforesaid difficulties inherent in prior known devices. Particular objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art, that is, those who are knowledgeable or experienced in this field of technology, in view of the following disclosure of the invention and detailed description of certain preferred embodiments.